Byron Barrera Ortiz is a Guatemalan journalist noted for his reporting of human rights abuses by the Guatemalan government during and after the Guatemalan Civil War, for which he received repeated threats against his life.
14 Facts About Byron Barrera
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Guatemalan by birth, Byron Barrera was forced to flee the country after reporting in 1980 that the Guatemalan military was massacring Indian peasants in Quiche Department.
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Byron Barrera spent the years from 1980 to 1986 in exile, returning to Guatemala following the victory of Vinicio Cerezo's Guatemalan Christian Democracy party.
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Byron Barrera then became as director of the Agencia Centroamericana de Noticias, and vice-president of the Guatemalan Journalists Association.
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Byron Barrera served as the founder and editor of a weekly news magazine, La Epoca, which one of its reporters described as being devoted to "muckraking pieces on corruption in government and private enterprise, no-holds-barred political analysis, and social investigation on topics like poverty and the environment".
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The firebombing was believed to be carried out by members of state security forces, and Byron Barrera subsequently left the country for several months after threats against himself and his family.
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On 25 October 1990, Byron Barrera became aware that he was being shadowed by two men on a motorcycle.
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Rafael Espada 8.
Byron Barrera reportedly informed President Cerezo's head of security of the tail, and gave officials the license plate number of the motorcycle.
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Byron Barrera later attributed his survival to a bulletproof vest he had recently begun to wear.
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The investigating prosecutors and Byron Barrera's lawyers were likewise threatened, causing the latter to withdraw from the case.
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In 1991, the year after the attack, Byron Barrera won the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Byron Barrera was threatened again for his journalism in 1993, when his name was circulated in an anonymous leaflet threatening him and 23 other journalists with death; Amnesty International again issued an alert on his behalf.
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Byron Barrera's brother Adolfo is a journalist and was abducted in 1994; he managed to escape and subsequently fled the country.
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Byron Barrera was allegedly assaulted in Guatemala City in 2008 by members of the Secretariat for Administrative and Security Matters following an attempt to photograph a new vehicle of Vice President Rafael Espada, prompting IFEX to issue a protest on his behalf.